


Talk Me Down

by sleeperbyday



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Married Couple, Men Crying, Mental Health Issues, Night Terrors, Nightmares, One Shot, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Spoilers, Vulnerability, but no one actually dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:48:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29511351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleeperbyday/pseuds/sleeperbyday
Summary: Claude has a particularly bad dream one night and his loving husband, Lorenz comforts him.
Relationships: Lorenz Hellman Gloucester/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 1
Kudos: 64





	Talk Me Down

**Author's Note:**

> as always, thank you to Congercine for the support 💜
> 
> tw: kidnapping and torture mention

The struggle to rebuild Fódlan is an uphill battle that rages for years after the war ends. Claude accepted that long ago, did his best to accommodate, but he can’t deny the tedium in fighting pointless skirmishes with lingering Shambhala loyalists.

There’s about ten of them this time. Assassins and snipers with ghostly pale skin, shadowed by mages covered head to toe in robes. Dispatching them is akin to target practice for the King of Almyra and Duke Gloucester of Fódlan. Claude almost doesn’t want to waste his time or his arrows, but alas, someone has to.

Sand stretches out in all directions, topped by a brilliantly blue sky and a blazing sun that has Claude breaking a sweat beneath his Barbarossa gear. It’s a good thing Lorenz decided against wearing his armour, otherwise the heat would surely be slowing him down too. Claude can’t remember how they ended up in the desert or what exactly they’re fighting for, but he knows it must be important, so he fights with all his might.

They’re without their respective mounts and outnumbered by a decent margin, but Claude and his husband make an excellent team. The enemies foolish enough to get too close are swiftly cut down with a swing of a lance, while the ones who keep their distance soon find themselves filled with arrows.

Soon enough, Claude comes to a stop and lowers his bow, chest heaving. The bodies of their Agarthan enemies surround them, lying flat and motionless but not bleeding.

“Another flawless victory,” Lorenz says when he draws near. He rolls his shoulders, unbound by his pauldrons for once, and extends the hand not gripping his lance to Claude. “Now, let us return home. This sun is simply dreadful.”

Claude moves to take his hand and pauses when he sees movement. One of the masked mages behind Lorenz shifts, slowly pushing their torso up and off the ground. There’s a wide tear in the front of their robe near the jugular, but the wound evidently wasn’t fatal. They flex their fingers and wisps of dark magic and the thick stench of smoke gather in their upturned palm. Claude’s every instinct screams at him to nock an arrow and finish the fiend off, but he doesn’t.

He only watches, arms uselessly pinned to his sides, until he springs into action at the last second.

_“Lorenz, look out!”_

His mouth shouts the words but his ears don’t hear them. Neither does Lorenz. He doesn’t move, still waiting for Claude to bridge the gap between them, until his face suddenly contorts in pain and he lets out a strangled cry.

Then, he falls to his knees.

Claude doesn’t think. He lets an arrow fly into the eye hole of the mage’s mask and doesn’t stop to watch them collapse back down before he sprints to catch Lorenz. He lowers them both to the ground, laying Lorenz’s head in his lap as gently as he can manage, and all words dry up in his throat.

Beneath him, Lorenz’s skin is cold and paling, his breaths coming out slow and shallow. His eyes are unfocused, barely open when they meet Claude’s and time itself seems to slow down. Lorenz manages a faint, weak smile and lifts a shaking hand to cup Claude’s cheek, but both fall away too quickly.

His eyes slide shut and he stops moving.

“Wake up.”

Claude hears himself speak this time. Nothing happens.

“Wake up!”

It’s louder the second time, more desperate, and Claude’s voice breaks as he grips Lorenz’s shoulder and shakes.

“Come back to me, please!”

That’s not his voice. Claude pauses and whips his head around. No one else is there.

“Please, Claude! Can you hear me?”

He blinks and darkness surrounds him when he opens his eyes. He tries to scream, but he’s out of breath and when he tries to inhale, he instead hyperventilates. Wide eyes dart around, but there’s nothing to be seen. No desert, no Agarthans, no battle.

Just a dream.

Claude presses the heels of his palms into his eyes and draws in a slow, trembling breath when he feels wetness there. The mattress creaks as someone to his left shifts and only then does he remember he isn’t alone.

“Lorenz… I’m so sorry. I didn’t wake you, did I?” He says in a weary murmur without removing his hands.

“That does not matter,” Lorenz’s voice is gentle yet firm, and Claude feels warmth at his shoulder where his hand hovers, hesitating. “May I touch you?”

 _Please_.

The word sticks in his throat, so he nods instead.

Lorenz sidles next to him until they’re pressed flush together. The contact is warm, but not warm enough to drive away the cold horror of seeing his loved one crumple to the ground in agony. Claude curls in on himself, his lungs pushing out the air within in a sharp burst.

_Just a dream._

A pair of arms snake around his midsection and delicately, like Claude is made of glass, Lorenz shifts them until they’re chest to chest. His arms readjust, one wrapping around Claude’s waist and the other resting against his shoulder, hand braced against the back of Claude’s head. Claude leans into the touch but doesn’t reciprocate, palms still covering his face and shielding him from the darkness.

“I…” he manages before tapering off.

“You do not need to explain yourself, dearest. I would never ask that of you,” Lorenz soothes.

“No, Lorenz, I…” Claude tries again and drags in a deep breath. “I watched you die. I felt your body turn cold as you died in my arms.”

The hand threading through his hair stills for a fraction of a second, then resumes.

“It was not real. We’re safe in Gloucester Manor. There is nothing here that can harm us.”

Claude nods against Lorenz’s chest. He lets his hands drop, his forehead coming to rest on Lorenz’s shoulder while they breathe together.

It’s not usually this bad. The nightmares have plagued Claude since he was a child, only evolving over the years and never quite leaving him. He used to dream of being held ransom or tortured for information, of attempts on his life succeeding. Then he began to see his family, or Teach, or any of the other Golden Deer falling in battle or being kidnapped as a way to get to him.

Recent times have been different.

Since they exchanged rings those few years ago, the vast, _vast_ majority of Claude’s dreams have forced him to watch Lorenz succumb to some horrible fate, powerless to help or do anything at all until he wakes with a scream and an arm outstretched.

Even so, he’s never physically felt the life drain out of his lover before.

Claude gasps in another breath. He forces his eyes shut, but the image of his husband’s lifeless body only burns brighter and he shivers, feeling the wetness around his eyes leak out and run down his cheeks. He wants to feel ashamed for waking the both of them up and needing to be comforted in this way, but he’s too overwhelmed, too weary, too paralysed.

He had thought he was getting better lately.

Those lonely nights when Claude was in Almyra and Lorenz was in Fódlan weren’t pleasant but they’re together now, albeit for a short time. He’s back in the private chambers of Gloucester Manor, back to restful nights with a familiar and comforting presence by his side. And yet…

And yet.

Claude tries not to keep count, not when he struggles to recall the dream he had by the time the sun rises. But after a few weeks, maybe even a month, of making it through the whole night, he had naively thought that maybe it was getting better. That maybe it would be more bearable from here on out.

Apparently not.

“I’m sorry,” he repeats, whispered into Lorenz’s neck.

“Do not apologise for something you cannot control,” Lorenz says without missing a beat.

Claude turns his head, looks out at what little he can see of their room. The curtains are drawn, completely obscuring the window and everything beyond, but the pitch blackness of the room tells him all he needs to know of the hour.

“But I woke you up.”

Lorenz tightens his hold. “I am glad you did. If you did not, you would have been left to face this matter on your own.”

It’s not the first time Lorenz has had to say that and it most assuredly won’t be the last. No matter how many times he says it, no matter how many times Claude tells Lorenz the same thing when he’s woken by his own nightmares, the words never seem to stick. Claude hates that the same situation is doomed to repeat itself over and over. Hates that he still finds himself back where he started weeks, months, years later. Hates that it never seems to get any easier.

Tentatively, Claude lifts a hand and rests it against Lorenz’s chest. His heartbeat thrums steadily, carrying through Claude’s fingers to echo in time with his own.

Claude’s shoulders shake.

“I love you.”

It’s the most natural thing he’s said or done all night.

“I love you as well, Claude. Always remember that.”

Claude finally cracks then. Catharsis flows through him as everything he’s ever left unsaid erupts from within. He sobs until he aches down to his heart and soul and his cheeks and hands are soaked with tears. Words fail him, so he talks with his actions and digs his fingers into Lorenz’s back, pulling them ever closer.

Lorenz doesn’t say anything more. They both know he doesn’t need to. He holds and caresses and listens, gently coaxing everything Claude has kept hidden from the day to the surface. Even when Claude’s exhaustion loosens his hold and his choked gasping turns to slow panting, Lorenz’s arms are safe and constant.

Claude wipes the rest of the tears from his face and heaves a deep breath. The room is still dark but Lorenz’s eyes are warm as he lifts an arm and runs his hand through Claude’s hair.

“How do you feel?” He murmurs, bowing his head to kiss Claude’s forehead.

Claude says nothing, even though he knows the answer. He will never again be the man he was before the war and doubts the image he saw in the dream will ever leave him. Only the future can say for certain and no matter how hard he tries, Claude’s long since known that the future only comes one day at a time.

“I think I‘m ready to go back to sleep now,” is all he says, a bigger admission than even he was expecting.

“Are you certain?” Lorenz’s reply is sceptical but without any persuasion. There’s no fight to be won, nothing to convince Claude of.

“Yes. Thank you, my love. For everything.”

Using the last of his energy, Claude wills himself to smile. It’s minuscule and deeply strained, but rich with gratitude and adoration that’s mirrored in Lorenz’s own fond gaze.

“You need not thank me, Claude. I will always ensure that no harm will befall you.”

They lay back down and Claude shuffles up to rest his head against the underside of Lorenz’s jaw. Arms tangle around each other, hands finding their place and leaving their mark, andClaude falls asleep neither smiling nor frowning.

Tomorrow is a new day.

**Author's Note:**

> i noticed that in all of my other projects so far, one of these two ALWAYS ends up getting vulnerable. so i thought why not write vulnerability: the fic
> 
> jokes aside, fe3h ending on a happy note regardless of which route you're playing is all well and good, but sort of breaks my heart at the same time because you know none of these kids are ever going to be the same again. i wanted to write something to reflect that and inject in just a bit of fluff and hopefulness
> 
> hope you enjoyed 💜💛


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